Indians of North America -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Folklore; Modoc Indians -- Religion; Modoc mythology
Blaiwas’ little boy was sleeping by the fire; his sister shook him, and
said: “Wake up and wash your face; we are going to see the place where
Yahyáhaäs killed our people.”
When his face was washed, the boy said: “Fix my feet; I want to go
too.”
“You are too small,” said his mother. “Why do you want to go?”
“I want to die with my uncles. I am lonesome; I don’t want to live any
longer.”
“You are too small to go. Yahyáhaäs could take you up with one finger
and throw you over the cliff.”
“I am going where my uncles were killed,” said the boy. “Paint me with
red paint right in the center of my head, where my thoughts come in and
teach me.”
They painted him and got him ready to go. Tusasás cut a long cedar
tree, tied it on his head, and went with the others. He started off as
if going to gamble; he laughed, jumped, and whooped. The people said:
“Yahyáhaäs will hear you and he will kill us all.”
“It won’t be hard for me to kill Yahyáhaäs,” boasted Tusasás. “I will
throw him over the cliff quickly.” Then he said to the boy: “Why are
you here? I sha’n’t need your help. You are too small to go to the
mountains; you had better go home.”
The boy didn’t look at Tusasás; he said to his mother: “You must stop
crying. I want all the people to stop crying and follow me.” He went
ahead.
The people looked at him and stopped crying. When they got to the lake,
Yahyáhaäs was not there, but he was not far off. The people hunted for
the place where the men had been killed, but they couldn’t find it.
Then the little boy said: “Here it is! Yahyáhaäs is coming. You can’t
see him, but I can. He will soon show himself in the east.”
Tusasás said: “I will be the first man to wrestle with him; I will
throw him into the lake.”
The people said: “It is bad to make fun of our chief and the men that
were killed here. You will make trouble for us.”
Right away they saw Yahyáhaäs coming from the east. He had on a pale
yellow coat that rattled as he hopped along. He had a yellow cane, and
his face was painted yellow. When he came to the people, he said: “I
like to see men and women. I don’t like to walk around and see no one;
it makes me lonesome. Will you feed me smoke?”
“We have nothing to make smoke with,” said one of the men.
“Did you come to play with me?” asked Yahyáhaäs. “I like to wrestle.
The last man I saw threw me, and went away somewhere.”
The little boy sat on the edge of the cliff; he didn’t say anything,
just looked at the water. At last he began to see men swimming around
under the surface; then he saw the five brothers and lots of other
men,—his own people. He felt strong and glad when he saw them.
Tusasás said: “You want to fight, don’t you? You think you can kill
Yahyáhaäs, don’t you?”
“Let the boy alone,” said his mother. “Don’t make fun of him; maybe he
can teach us things.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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